Outcomes of early childhood education: Literature review

Publication Details

This literature review was commissioned by the Ministry of Education to provide policy makers with a synthesis of research that analyses the impact of early childhood education (ECE) for children and families.

This report is available as a download (please refer to the 'Downloads' inset box). To view the individual chapters please refer to the 'Sections' inset box.

Acknowledgements

The literature review, funded by the Ministry of Education, is intended to provide policy makers with a synthesis of research that analyses the impact of early childhood education (ECE) for children and families. We are grateful for the funding for this project and the opportunity to do this work.

NZCER Information Services staff, Kristina Louis and Susan Tompkinson did the work of searching, sourcing, and interloaning material, as well as making direct contact with libraries in New Zealand. University of Waikato librarian, Theresa Ball, searched data bases from the University of Waikato library that were not held by NZCER. The comprehensive nature of the search can be attributed to their thorough approach.

Edith Hogden, NZCER statistician, read and evaluated many of the research studies against the criteria for inclusion, calculated some effect sizes where these were not given in the original study, and helped the reviewers to interpret statistical analyses.

Associate Professor Megan Clark, from Victoria University, acted as a critical sponsor, providing quality assurance on the robustness and validity of research methodology used in the NZCER longitudinal Competent Children, Competent Learners study. Findings from this research study are synthesised in the literature review.

Alan Pence, Professor, School of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria, British Columbia, and Iram Siraj-Blatchford, Professor of Early Childhood Education, Institute of Education, University of London, commented on an early draft.

Ministry of Education staff, Karl Le Quesne and Kim Ang Chhim, provided constructive feedback throughout the process, and made a very useful contribution to shaping the final report.